Edward Bellamy

Edward Bellamy (March 26, 1850 – May 22, 1898) was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, "Looking Backward", set in the year 2000.

Early life

Edward Bellamy was born in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. His father was Rufus King Bellamy (1816-1886), a Baptist minister and a descendant of Joseph Bellamy. His mother was Maria Louisa (Putnam) Bellamy, a Calvinist. Her father, Benjamin Putnam, had also been a Baptist minister, but had to withdraw from the ministry in Salem, Massachusetts, following objections to him being made a Freemason. ['Edward Bellamy's Religious Thought', by Joseph Schiffman, "Transactions and Proceedings of the Modern Language Association of America)", Vol. 68, No. 4 (Sep., 1953), p 716] He had two older brothers, Frederick and Charles. He attended Union College, but did not graduate. While there, he joined the Theta Chi Chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He studied law, but left the practice and worked briefly in the newspaper industry in New York and in Springfield, Massachusetts. He left journalism and devoted himself to literature, writing both short stories and novels. He married Emma Augusta Sanderson in 1882. The couple had two children, Paul (1884) and Marion (1886).

He was the cousin of Francis Bellamy, most famous for creating the Pledge of Allegiance.

His books include "Dr. Heidenhoff's Process" (1880), ' (1884), ' (1900), and the utopian novels "" (1888), and its sequel, "Equality" (1897).

"Looking Backward"

According to Erich Fromm, "Looking Backward" is "one of the most remarkable books ever published in America." Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward 2000-1887, with a foreword by Erich Fromm, Signet 1960. ISBN 0-451-52412-8] It was the third largest bestseller of its time, after "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "". In the book "Looking Backward" an upper class man from 1887 awakens in 2000 from a hypnotic trance to find himself in a socialist utopia. It influenced a large number of intellectuals, and appears by title in many of the major Marxist writings of the day. "It is one of the few books ever published that created almost immediately on its appearance a political mass movement." [(Fromm, p vi). 165] Several "Bellamy Clubs" sprang up all over the United States for discussing and propagating the book's ideas. This political movement came to be known as Nationalism. [See, for example, Edward Bellamy. "What 'Nationalism" Means. The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature (1844-1898); Sep 1890; 52, 3; pg. 289] His novel also inspired several utopian communities.

Although his novel "Looking Backward" is unique, Bellamy owes many aspects of his philosophy to a previous reformer and author, Laurence Gronlund, who published his treatise "The Cooperative Commonwealth: An Exposition of Modern Socialism" in 1884.

A short story "" from the book "Equality", published in 1897, was popular with a number of early American socialists. Less successful than its prequel, "Looking Backward", "Equality" continues the story of Julian West as he adjusts to life in the future.

Several hundred additional utopian novels were published in the US from 1889 to 1900, due in part to the book's popularity. [(Bowman, Sylvia E. "The Year 2000: A Critical Biography of Edward Bellamy." New York: Bookman Associates, 1958. page 107). ]

Death

Bellamy died from tuberculosis at his childhood home in Chicopee Falls at the age of 48.

ee also

* Dutch Bellamy Party

References

Further reading

* Edward Bellamy, " [http://reactor-core.org/looking-back.html Looking Backward: 2000–1887] " with a foreword by Erich Fromm, Signet, 1960.
* Edward Bellamy, "The Religion of Solidarity", ed. Arthur E. Morgan, Antioch Bookplate Company, 1940. Published posthumously; concerns the idea of love of man and human solidarity.
* Edward Bellamy, "Apparitions of Things to Come: Edward Bellamy's Tales of Mystery & Imagination", collection of short stories, ISBN 0-88286-165-4.
* Arthur E. Morgan, "The Philosophy of Edward Bellamy", King's Crown Press, 1945.
* John Hope Franklin, "Edward Bellamy and the Nationalist Movement," "The New England Quarterly", Vol. 11, December 1938, 739–772.
* Elizabeth Sadler, "One Book's Influence: Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward" "The New England Quarterly", Vol. 17, December 1944, 530–555.
* Matthew Kapell, "Mack Reynolds' Avoidance of his own Eighteenth Brumaire: A Note of Caution for Would-Be Utopians." Extrapolation, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Summer): 201-208. (Examines Reynolds' "utopian" thought in his rewriting of Edward Bellamy's 19th century book Looking Backward.)
* Karl Traugott Goldbach, "Utopian Music: Music History of the Future in Novels by Bellamy, Callenbach and Huxley," "Utopia Matters. Theory, Politics, Literature and the Arts", ed. Fátima Viera and Marinela Freitas, Editora da Universidade do Porto, 2005, pp. 237-243.

External links

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* [http://members.ij.net/rex/pledge1.html Edward Bellamy, Francis Bellamy and the Pledge of Allegiance]

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SHORT DESCRIPTION=
DATE OF BIRTH=birth date|1850|3|26|mf=y
PLACE OF BIRTH=Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts
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PLACE OF DEATH=Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts